{Day 13} Bounty panna cotta

I just found out that on top of it being Breast Cancer Awareness month, this week is chocolate week! So why not promote awareness of one, with the delicious flavour of the other?

If I had to choose my favourite candy bar it would definitely be a Bounty! I’m slightly obsessed with coconut and paired with chocolate it proves simply irresistible… I’ve even made some bounty truffles before, so hard to stop at just one!

My very close second favourite would have to be the Polish Ptasie Mleczko, an airy milk-based marshmallowy centre covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate, a yummy treat I grew up with but sadly quite often hard to come by in Sydney.

The English translation of the treat’s name – “bird’s milk”, is a little odd I know, but it relates to the deliciously light and fluffy middle. The most popular flavours of “bird’s milk” have always been vanilla and cream, but since the days of plain flavours are over, Wedel has also produced lemon, chocolate, coffee and strawberry & cream flavours. No coconut yet though, hint hint…

So, while I called my dessert a Bounty panna cotta – basically because of the coconut chocolate flavour combination and the cooking technique used, the actual texture of the filling sits somewhere between a smooth creamy panna cotta and a fluffy and light marshmallow. Covered in dark chocolate and sprinkled with a little extra coconut flakes, it looks pretty and tastes sensational! Highly addictive!

You could serve it right from the Royal Selangor jelly mould with just the melted chocolate topping or, unmould it and cover it in more dark chocolate goodness.

And whatever you do, enjoy chocolate week! Or what’s is left of it. And get yourself a mould – it’s for a good cause, and because I’ve got another delicious choc recipe coming up on Saturday! It may surprise you…

Giveaway

Comment on any of the Royal Selangor Get Your Jelly On challenge posts on my blog to win an Olympus VG-110 camera – multiple entries allowed. Giveaway is open worldwide! Entries close October 30, midnight AEST. Winner will be announced on the blog on October 31.

Makes 2 cones

Bounty panna cotta

You may need to reheat the chocolate a couple of times as it will set quite quickly when it comes in touch with the chilled panna cotta. Use a pastry frush to pain the chocolate on, then a little spoon to fill in any gaps. I’ve used agar agar in this recipe to make it vegetarian (it is a non-flavoured seaweed extract that acts like gelatin).

For the panna cotta:

1 cup coconut milk

3/4 cup fresh cream

1/8 cup caster sugar

1/8 cup dessicated coconut

4g agar-agar powder

For the chocolate shell:

100g dark chocolate (I used Cadbury Old Gold)

1 tbsp dessicated coconut to sprinkle

To make the panna cotta: combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and, while whisking, bring to a boil. Once the agar agar and sugar have dissolved, it should take about a minute, remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.

Pour mixture into moulds and allow to set in the fridge for about 2 hours.

To make the chocolate shell: melt 30g of the chocolate first, in a microwave (zap for 20 seconds twice, stirring between zaps). Spoon about 1 tbsp of chocolate over the panna cotta, spread evenly and sprinkle with extra coconut. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes to set.

Remove the moulds from the freezer and unmould the panna cottas onto the serving plates.

Reheat the rest of the chocolate for another 20 second zaps and working with a pastry brush, quickly brush the warm chocolate all over the cone. It will set quite quickly because of the temperature difference, so just keep heating it up when you it becomes too hard to work with.

Storage: store the panna cottas in the fridge until ready to serve. They will keep for a couple of days once chilled.

I didn’t realise either – there are so many days and weeks and months dedicated to things, it is hard to keep up sometimes. But hopefully, we will help people remember October is breast cancer awareness month!

I’m not a big fan of panna cotta, but its coconut version covered in dark chocolate looks like something completely different! I would love to bite through the crunchy wall!
Ptasie Mleczko was, I think, the biggest disappointment of my adult life. Either they have changed (read: destroyed to make it cheaper) the recipe (for both the filling and the “chocolate”, now felt like a soapy tasteless layer) or my taste buds and expectations have changed since I live in Switzerland 😉

Thank you so much for using agar agar; I always try and substitute it (I’ve a veg) but I never get the proportions right switching it over from gelatine (and I *definitely* would have tried this one; I love bounty bars too!).